Congratulations Nathan Oystrick!

Oysters was one of my favorite Thrashers last season. I was sad when he didn't make the team and even more upset when he got traded to the Ducks. He remained in Chicago as the Ducks do not have an AHL affiliated team. Nathan was recalled on April 1, no April Fools, to play with the big boys in Anaheim. He played in his first game with the Ducks last night against the Vancouver Canucks. He took 9 shifts last night for a total of 5 minutes and 34 seconds. He also took a 2 minute roughing penalty. Good luck Nathan!

Welcome Artyukhin, Farewell Oysters

The Thrashers did a little "wheeling and dealing" before the trade deadline. They acquired forward Evgeny Artyukhin from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Nathan Oystrick and a conditional pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.


Thrashers fans will be familiar with Arty as he was previously with Tampa Bay and we saw a lot of him.



You might remember the fight where he annihilated Chris Thorburn in the final game of the season last year.



Arty puts some serious size on our team. At 6'5'' and 255lbs, his physical style is a force to be reckoned with. Though his scoring numbers are typically low, he is a large, aggressive forward who is great along the boards. He's fast has a decent forecheck. He's only appeared in 37 games for the Ducks this season and has 9 points.



Farewell Nathan! Nathan was one of my favorites last season and I was disappointed when he didn't make the team this season. As the Ducks have no AHL affiliate, he will for the time being remain in Chicago. Good look Oysters!

Farewell Oysters! Nathan Oystrick Released On Waivers

Oysters was one of my three favorite non-goalie players. Colin Stuart is gone, now Nathan, all I have left is Bobo :( What can I say, I guess I like the non-big superstars.





Good luck Nathan. You will be missed in Atlanta! Hopefully we'll see you soon.

What I did on my summer vacation: Nathan Oystrick

The Blueland Blog has a really good interview with Oysters about his summer. In addition to getting married, he found his biological mom! How cool is that?? Congrats on your new bride and may the reconnection with your biological family bring you only happiness!


You can read the interview here:
http://bluelandblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/oystricks-remarkable-summer/

Focus on a Thrasher: Nathan Oystrick

Oystrick, Nathan Oystrick. Oysters looks like something out of a James Bond movie in this picture from Casino Night. He has the most amazing blue eyes. And, he's been super nice the two times I met him. Unfortunately he does NOT deal good hands at black jack...or he didn't to Shauna. While he looked devastatingly handsome in his tux (ice cream man suit) he sucked the faux money right out of our pockets.








Let's find out a little more about Nathan.

Nathan was born on December 17, 1982 in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He started his hockey career in the 1999-2000 season with the Regina Pat Canadians of the SMHL. He played 43 games and scored 6 goals and 22 assists. Oysters also amassed 214 penalty minutes (nice start!)

Nathan went on to spend two seasons in the BCHL with the South Surrey Eagles.

In those two seasons, Nathan played in 110 games, scored 24 goals and 77 assists for a total of 101 points. He also racked up 372 penalty minutes.





In the 2002 NHL Draft, Nathan was drafted in the 7th round(198th overall)by the Atlanta Thrashers.

In 2002, after being drafted by the Thrashers, Nathan went to "get his learn on" at Northern Michigan University.

In 2002-03, Oysters was fourth among Northern Michigan defensemen, was fifth among the team's freshmen and seventh among the club's underclassmen in scoring.





Oystrick had a breakout year with Northern Michigan in 2003-04 as a sophomore as he benefited from more ice time. He had 8 goals, 28 assists, was +5 with 98 penalty minutes in 39 games. He made the CCHA Second Team All-Stars. He was second in team scoring and first among defensemen.

One thing Nathan had to get used to was not fighting while in college. Oysters was the type to drop the gloves in junior, but admitted the rule against fighting in college was a change.

In an interview with Hockey's Future in 2004, Nathan said:

There are some times I want to go out there and drop the gloves with someone and rip some guy’s head off, but I have to control myself [laughs]. But I have to still play the body and play hard on my man. The only difference from junior is I can’t drop the gloves and go with someone.”

Oystrick had two more successful years with Northern Michigan University. He attended his first training camp with the Thrashers in 2004. In 2006 Nathan signed his first NHL contract and was assigned to the Thrashers AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.

The 2006-07 season was Nathan's first full season as a Wolf and he had a good offensive year putting up 47 points.

The 2007-08 season was equally rewarding with Nathan playing in 80 regular season games and scoring 43 points. He and the Wolves went on to win the Calder Cup that season. Nathan scored 11 points in the playoffs.

In the 2008-09 season, Nathan got his chance to hit the big league. Atlanta had a new coach, John Anderson, former coach of the Chicago Wolves. He had a new system and Nathan knew how to play it.

On November 26, 2008 against the Washington Capitals, Nathan scored his first NHL goal. For the next home game, I made him a bad ass sign congratulating him on his first NHL goal. Imagine my delight when he was our post game show guest. I got him to autograph my sign. He liked it. No really, he did, he TOLD me "Nice sign." I said "nice goal." :)

Other "firsts" for Nathan

• First collegiate hattrick on November 4, 2004 with three first period goals against Michigan Tech.
• Tallied first AHL goal at San Antonio on October 20, 2006.
  

Nathan finished the season with the Thrashers by playing in 53 games and registering 12 points. That's a significant drop off from this AHL number. You have to take into account though that this was his first season playing against NHL talent. Also Nathan was scratched for a lot of games. Being scratched on and off again can have an affect on getting your game going.

Oystrick is an offensive minded defenseman. He's a good skater and passer and will fight if necessary. He moves the puck well and has a decent slapshot. At 5'11'' he isn't tall, but he's solid. I would love to see Oysters come back next season, but with him being an RFA, I guess we will have to see what happens.

Awards

• 2003-04 CCHA Second All-Star Team
• 2004-05 CCHA First All-Star Team
• 2004-05 CCHA Best Defensive Defensemen
• 2006-07 AHL All Rookie Team
• 2006-07 AHL Second All Star Team
  
  
  

Practice Makes Perfect

In hockey and photography. Hopefully this practice did the Thrashers a lot more good than it did my photo skills. Practice is awful to take pictures at. The lighting is bad and the glass is all beat to hell. It's also incomprehensibly cold. So shooting fast moving objects in bad lighting through dirty glass while freezing to death doesn't yield the best rewards, especially with my skills, equipment and experience. I don't get to go to practice much, so I don't have a lot of practice practice (snort). So, if you are hoping for some good action shots and deep discussion on the drills and play, sorry. All you are gonna get is some close up shots of the guys when they are still, some buckbunny comments and some dumb jokes. Welcome :)

First of all and most importantly...Happy Birthday Boris Valabik!! Bobo turns 23 today. Being the scrapbooking/card making dork I am, I of course had to make him a card. I gave it to him and said "Happy Birthday Boris" he looked surprised and genuinely thankful. He said "Thank you very much." It was cute to see him carrying his little card while signing autographs. At least he didn't throw it away where I could see ;)

Oh and for the record, Slovakian words are TOO LONG! That card doesn't say "I hope you have the best birthday ever and you never for get it." No, the words that will barely fit on the card are just "Happy Birthday."



I wanted to get some good Bobo pics, FAIL! I took about a million blurry ones. Only a few came out.




Go Bobo, it's your birthday




Watcha looking at guys, I'm over here!




I didn't mean for this to be the Moose show (for once). Goalies just tend to be still more often. And he's so damn photogenic, I couldn't resist.




Awww, a smiling Moose. I think he just found out that I had come to get my jersey signed. Yes, I'm sure that's it.

Boultsie is such a goof ball. Hard to believe he's such a bruiser. He and Perrin were playing a game at the end of practice and they were both so into it. Not sure what it was, but something like H-O-R-S-E with hockey pucks is what I was told.

Hainsey stretching

Colby stretching. He's so stinking nice. Kids always ask for his stick and he always says "Sorry buddy, I need it for the game but I'll see if they have any in the back." And he does. He comes back with sticks for the kids. Such a sweety. I wish the Spirit would do more marketing with him...oh wait.

Oysters is cracking up about something.

Time to work! Coach Anderson is running over some plays.

Hainsey

It's a good thing I like goalies. They are way more still. Kari is cruising around.

Moose getting ready to face some rubber

De är så söta. I wonder what Team Sweden is talking about.

Kovalchuk. I told him congratulations on the new baby. He smiled. I told Marty Reasoner the same and he smiled at me and said "thank you."

Boulton with his mouth hanging open...a common sight.

At the practice rink in Duluth, there are always different teams coming in to get ready to warm up and play. They are usually aged from teeny little pee wee guys to high school. They have to walk all the way down to the end of ice to get to the dressing room. I love seeing the tiny guys with their little pads. Sometimes their bags are bigger than they are.

Shauna and I are sitting there watching practice and a team is coming in. The first few go by, bigger kids. I move my feet so they can go by. I'm thinking, must be high school. Then Shauna reads their gear..."University of Alabama." We looked at each other and said in unison..."COLLEGE!" These aren't babies, they are college hockey guys. I'm glad we realized this early, at least before the two goalies went by. It was like a cougar parade...like lions watching a wildebeest heard. We enjoyed them going by, rating some of them, commenting on others. Some looked really young...others did not :)

One of them was hurt, we referred to him as "injured reserve." He was pretty cute.

When I was waiting for the players to exit the ice so I could give Bobo his card and get my new Hedberg jersey signed, some of the University of Alabama players were behind me. One of them asked who that guy was, I told him Chris Thorburn. He wanted to know because he wore #27 for Alabama.

I noticed there was a little group of them behind me and they had some questions. One was wondering who Zack Bogosian was. So, being the friendly southerner I am, I stepped back to speak to them.

I told them all about Bogo and Boultsie. They asked if the guys were good about autographs and I said they were.

What a great way to spend Valentine's Day!!

When it's not enough to watch your team lose at home...ROAD TRIP!

Back in August plans began on the Atlanta Thrashers web board and the Nasty Nest web board for a road trip to Raleigh, North Carolina to watch our beloved Thrashers play the Carolina Hurricanes. Thank god we had to prepay the poor girl for tickets because chances are, if we had known how crappy the team would be doing, I'm guessing 1/2 of the people wouldn't have gone through with it.



We had over 150 fans make the 6 hour drive to Raleigh. We were on tv and even had a few write-ups in the AJC about us :

http://www.ajc.com/thrashers/content/printedition/2009/02/01/thrashers0201.html?cxntlid=inform_artr



http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/thrashers/entries/2009/01/31/the_worst_stret.html



Most of us stayed in the Ramada Inn about a mile away. We had a huge tail gate party before the game complete with beer, BBQ and fireworks, the North Carolina trifecta. We were all given these horrific noisemakers that sounded kind of like an air horn. AWESOME! GO THRASHERS! Let's go to the game. We made the 1 mile trek tooting our horns and chanting. We approached the site of the bloodbath that was to come, the RBC Center.

Boy they have security locked down there. You have to go through metal detectors. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get my cow bell or horn in! It was no problem though. They looked through my bag, read my signs and we were off to the ice. There were so many Thrashers fans there I couldn't get a space on the glass for my signs. One guy was nice enough to let me get up there. We were so loud and crazy, it was a ton of fun. The players looked so surprised. We were singing, chanting and tooting.




Bryan Little looks stunned.




Hainsey and Bogosian are getting a kick out of us.


Moose was his usual reserved self, but he was looking and reading our signs.

Bogo looks like he's trying to get in the zone. Guess he never found it.

The Caniacs at the RBC Center were quite taken aback by us. Reactions were usually positive, but many were stunned. I love the look on this guy's face.

Bobo and Bogo.

Bobo looks stunned. He was a healthy scratch for the night's game. Great idea.

Still stunned.

Moose warming up.

Boultsie

Leighton, you should just take a nap. Trust me, Cam will NOT need you tonight.

I had a blast on the trip and would do it again, but this is the one good thing that came out of it. Moose without his mask skating back to the locker room after warm up. He rarely goes mask-less. *swoon*

I didn't get a lot of game pictures. I was too busy blowing my horn, clapping, chanting and ringing my cowbell.

Face off.

We saw FAR too much of this shit. I don't think I've ever been so upset to see/hear Rick Flair's WOOOOOOOO

A lot of the Caniacs were PISSED at us. Some complained. Pretty much the entire game we had several security guards and a few cops standing by. They tossed out our guy who had a drum. Why did they let him in if it was a problem??? You are going to toss out a drum but this kid gets to wave a hockey stick in the air??? He almost hit 2 people in the head as they walked by.

We were a good crowd. We just wanted to cheer on our guys. When they announced that a soldier was there that had returned from a tour of duty, we stood and cheered loudly. When they had the little kids playing hockey during the intermission, we went nuts cheering for them. The little goalie was good btw. And when we left, I thanked the security guards and the cops.
We did blow our horns through the entire special piece on Cam Ward and drowned it out. That WAS a little bit asshole-ish I guess.

On to more ass-whipping.


Kari getting back in net so the Canes can resume pounding him with shots. I wonder if in the intermission he asks the guys "WHY DO YOU HATE ME???"



I don't care what team you are, I love a mascot!! Stormy the Icehog was taunting us waving at us. I think he was scared though, he didn't come too close. That kind of disappointed me. And of COURSE he didn't shoot any shirts our way.

More face off

Some play

Kari Lehtonen gets special praise. He made 38 saves and the two he let in were break aways. Besides the 150+ fans, he was the only person from Atlanta to show up last night. Thank you Karpa!

Even with Kari's effort, Thrashers get SHUT OUT, 2-0. We didn't even get to celebrate a goal! And of course after making such a loud ruckus, we had to take our medicine from the Canes fans on the way out. That was the longest , coldest mile walk back to the hotel with people blowing their horns at us and leaning out of the windows yelling. I finally just started telling people "we came for the BBQ. We got tired of watching them lose at home and took a road trip." Serge had a more colorful response that involved them doing sexual things to relatives or driving tractors.

I didn't get a single damn picture of us in the crowd. I was too busy clapping, chanting and tooting my noise maker. I also had the zoom lens on. I'm hoping to get some pictures of the crowd from other fans to add to the blog.

Miles traveled - 350

Hours in a car - 6

Miles walked in the cold - 2

Goals scored - 0